European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 2, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Refugees Settle in Small town rom Southeast Asia to Southwest Kansas a photo a photo basketball in Garden City Kan., where asian immigrants comprise 8 percent of the town s 20,000 population. By Sally Streff associated press a after the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugee from Southeast Asia began arriving in the United states Many settling in places like Garden City Kan. Then in 1981, when Imp opened a Large meatpacking Plant just outside of Garden City they started coming in droves drawn by the Plant s Good wages. Southeast asians most of them from Vietnam but a few from Laos and Cambodia now make up about 8 percent of the town s population. Local social service workers know that most of the immigrants come from Small fishing villages or Large cities along the coast of Vietnam. They came to the United states under the sponsorship of family friends or Church groups and most spent time at a Philippines Camp first learning the basics of american life. They also know Many of the immigrants work from 3 . Until Midnight at the Imp Plant where they earn a starting wage of $6.40 an hour and get health insurance after three months. Many live in trailer Parks around the town and almost All Send their children to local schools. But no one has Ever examined How the asian immigrants have adjusted to Garden City and How the town including its 20 percent hispanic population has adjusted to them social workers say. With a Grant from the Ford foundation six researchers from Kansas and Colorado universities will have that Chance this summer. The researchers will look at the town s schools workplaces neighbourhoods and social and political a teacher with the Garden City adult learning Center sits in front of an automobile at a trailer Park to teach English to some Southeast asian immigrants. A photo groups including churches the police department and City government says Donald Stull an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas who Heads the research team Garden City a town of about 20,000 in the isolated southwestern Corner of Kansas May seem out of place in the study which will dispatch research teams to study recent immigrants to Chicago Miami san Francisco Houston and  Stull says it s a misconception that Small towns Don t attract immigrants. These communities Are much More widespread than most people think he says. For example refugees from Southeast Asia Are starting to show up in some Small Iowa towns to work at meat packing plants opened by Imp in recent years one in storm Lake population about 9,000, and the other in Rural Louisa county. The Ford foundation project is different from other studies because it focuses on the relations among different racial groups instead of just one group Stull says. The Ford researchers also Are required to release r their results As soon As possible probably by next fall in Garden City s Case to Community groups that can use them. For example Stull says the researchers May help the local school District develop teacher training materials. In Many ways Garden City has been Good to the vietnamese immigrants says Ken Erickson a refugee coordinator for the state department of social and rehabilitation services who also is a member of the research  teen agers play with hispanics and anglos on the boys High school soccer team. The Community College offers English language courses at the trailer Parks and the school District provides bilingual classrooms. The town s Hospital has an employee who Speaks vietnamese and a local non profit group broadcasts a vietnamese Cable television program. All the service agencies have tried hard to accommodate people Erickson says. Still the police department is without an employee who Speaks vietnamese and the City has struggled to find employees who speak vietnamese. Jessie Palacio teaches English to seven vietnamese men in the trailer Home of one in the morning before the men go to work at the beef packing Plant. But a great Deal of her time is spent teaching them Basic survival skills she says. This month she s taking them to tour the City s police station. In the past she s taught her students How to pay Utility Bills and dial 911. We do a lot of social service things Palacio says. The class is offered by the Garden City Community College s adult learning Center. Palacio who s taught at the Center for five years says Many vietnamese immigrants join an English class for , but then drop out mostly because work at the Plant is so tiring. Most end up coming Back. They realize they need it she says. Most of them say they want to be Able to speak to  her students Range in age from 30 to 68. Three have been in the United states less than three years and three for More than six years but Only two know enough English to go in a store and buy something without assistance she says. Palacio Speaks no vietnamese herself but she does have years of experience As a bilingual teacher s aide in Garden City s Public school system teaching hispanic students. I Don t speak a word of it she says with a laugh. They speak to me in broken English and i just listen and pick up what they say. It s just something that comes from  Garden City s school District takes every new teacher it hires on a tour of the Imp beef packing Plant so they can see first hand the Back breaking Way Many of their students parents earn a living says or. Tulio Tablada director of bilingual services for the 6,000-student District. More than 600 students 547 in elementary school and 73 in Junior and senior High Are currently enrolled in the District s bilingual and English As a second language programs. Those numbers Don t include students who be moved out of the bilingual classrooms into other classrooms. We try to get them out As soon As we feel they can handle it Tablada says. Tablada says the District s biggest problem is attracting bilingual teachers from big cities in other parts of the nation especially the East and West coasts. The High school has two vietnamese teachers and a vietnamese Counselor. But at the elementary level the District has Only seven teachers who speak Spanish and none who speak vietnamese. Instead they employ teacher s aides who speak vietnamese. Recently the District announced a scholarship program to train recent vietnamese immigrants to become teachers. We re planning to grow our own Tablada says 14 the stars and stripes saturday july 2,1988 the stars and stripes Page 15